Naruto: The art of magic
by Tammy Two Paws
Summary: Stealing something has never been better, and for once, Naruto actually gained something out of it! Heh, who knew that learning magic was this easy. It's certainly more useful that anything else he learned back in the academy days. Who needs jutsus anyway? Spells are much cooler! Multi crossovers.
1. Useful theft

**AN: WELCOME TO MY NEW STORY! Nothing happened these last weeks because I have been tremendously busy, and someone died, so yah.**

**How are you guys and gals? Good I hope, because I am in a spectacular mood at the time of writing! Yes, I know, I know, a new story, but this idea is simply too great to let go!**

**Let me see... IF YOU HATE QUICKLY STRONG NARUTO, THEN EXIT NOW! Will he be smart? Maybe. He'll at least be somewhat spiritually aware. What type of magic? Different types from books, movies and videogames. I will start with Harry potter magic though since it is fairly basic, weak and easy to learn. That, and Bombarda Maxima is just awesome. MINI-NUCLEAR BLASTS!**

**Naruto's nemesis? Someone totally unexpected, and he is actually from Naruto! I am also not going to follow the canon storyline, at most I will use events *Like the wave-mission* as a way to show how much time has passed.**

**I will also write a small list on the bottom of each chapter for every NEW spell. A spell will only be written own and explained once during my list, so if you are unsure about a spell that has been used several times, then try and check other chapters.**

**Phew, this was way to long for my tastes, but whatever.**

**LET'S START!**

_Dis-freaking-claimer: I do NOT own anything copyrighted! Thank god mythology isn't copyrighted, for if it was, I would be sued many times over._

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"I should cut down on the chocolate." A Human being talking.

'But it tastes so good!' A Human being thinking.

"_Maybe substitute it with ice-cream..." _An Ethereal being talking.

_'Rather that than caramel.' _An Ethereal being thinking OR someone reading directly from a book or scroll.

"**Then again, I really like vingummi."** A Demonic entity talking AND Vingummi is a Scandinavian word.

**'But I'll stick with jummy chocolate.'** A Demonic entity thinking.

"MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA, CHOCOLATE!" Spellcasting and incantations.

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The alarms were blaring loudly throughout the village while ninjas scurried to and fro, looking for any speck of orange. Why did they look for something orange you may ask? A boy named Naruto Uzumaki, the known-to-everyone-except-the-younger-generation container of The Nine-tailed Fox, the flop of the academy, and one of the supposedly loudest persons that has ever lived managed to steal the forbidden scroll of sealing, a scroll that is defended by the villages most experienced ninjas, the ANBU, and the village leader himself.

Of course, the boy was also probably one of the stealthies persons on the planet. Being a prankster, he had quickly learned how to mask his precense. He was so good in fact, that unless he wanted to be found, you would never find him, no matter how good your tracking skills might be. This also gave him a highly analytical mind, even if he seldom was able to use it due to the academy being less than stellar at their training of potential ninjas.

Because of this, most, if not everyone underestimated him, which was quite evident since their scurrying around the village proper was mostly for nothing, for Naruto wasn't even inside the village anymore. Close to a cabin in the woods with the scroll on the ground, and the boy sitting beside it, Naruto smiled to himself.

"That was way too easy." He mumbled to himself. "Who would have thought the ANBU really was that… lax? I mean, really, if I was an enemy, we could have lost all our secrets."

He looked over at the scroll.

"I wonder what's inside it…" He muttered to himself as he finally rolled it out.

"Hmm, nothing really cool here… kage-Bunshin… It may be useful, but I don't know if I have the time… It only has one hand-sign though, so I might learn this later... Ouch!"

The paper was a bit sharper than first anticipated, so when he moved his hand along the edge of the paper, he cut himself, making blood come from his finger, some of it hitting the paper.

Sucking on his pointy finger, Naruto glared at the paper. A moment later though, his eyes widened in awe. The letters, pictures and… Well, everything put inside the scroll were changing. The simple hand-signs changed into illustrations, MOVING illustrations, showing different… Well, he still wasn't sure, but it looked like jutsus, but at the same time, not.

"Ars Magica." Echoed through the clearing even though he barely whispered the words. It sounded so mystic, so fantastic, so… What the hell does it mean?

"I can't read anything!" He said in frustration, gripping his head.

Suddenly, two words lit up on the scroll, grabbing Naruto's attention.

"Arcanus Verba… Hmm, shall I use chakra or… Meh." Shrugging his shoulders, he pushed some chakra out of his body, some of it touching the scroll.

"Arcanus Verba."

For just a quick moment, the chakra swirled wildly around him, turning into a deep, purple color. A moment later it was gone, and the scroll, which started to glow the same color, slowly let the light fade away, the letters rearranging, actually making sense for the boy.

_'Ars Magica, or the art of magic, has been circulating throughout not just this world, but the ethereal world, or the spirit world as it is more often called, and the demonic world, or hell as it may also be called. It has long been discussed exactly how magic is created, and while no explanation is correct, there is one theory that has lived on through the ages._

_Before we can begin to give an explanation, we have to give a different explanation of the three realms. Magic, or mana as we also call it, is made up of two parts, spiritual and natural energies. There is also a third energy, the physical energy. Each realm has its own energy. Our realm, or the human realm, also called the natural realm, is, as its name implies, the main source of the natural energies. All life here is given the blessings of nature which is why plants grow and feed us. In short, it is "the energy of life"._

_And then we have the ethereal realm, the land of the spirits. When something dies, whether if it's a human, animal, plant or demon, it is sent to this realm. It seems that no matter how much dies, this realm never gets any fuller, nor does it get any bigger, which brought forth the theory of re-creation, or reincarnation, but that is something else we will dwell on later. As you may have guessed, this is where spiritual energy is originating from. In short, everything that dies generates a certain amount of spiritual energy, "the energy of the divine"._

_And at last, we have the demonic realm, the land of the corrupted beings. A land mostly populated by demonic, undead and even mythological creatures. Because of the massive amount of physical energies in this realm, the beings here are naturally larger and stronger than any other (un)living creature in the two other realms. At the same time though, because of the energies, Spiritual and natural energies are mostly blocked off from entering that realm, making most hell-creatures dumb and instinctive which in retrospect makes their physical strength somewhat redundant. Because of the violent nature, Physical energy is often seen as "the energy of chaos", but it has also been shown that if a human is given a big enough amount of this energy, they will often die, so it also has the nickname as "the energy of death"._

_Each of the three realms are connected, and because of this, the essence that permeate the one realm bleed into another realm, which is why ever creature has at least a modicum amount of the three energies. The three energies each contain some properties. The natural energies are something all living beings have, even demonic beings. The amount of natural energy, or "Life-force" As it's been commonly named among the non-magic wielders, doesn't increase nor decrease a living creatures' health. A man lying on his bed, dying can have more life-force in his pinky finger than a healthy, hard-working man can have in his whole body, but obviously, the ones with more energy have a higher chance of learning the art of magic._

_The spiritual energy is more obscure for us, but we have a theory. It has commonly been seen (But doesn't always happen) that beings with a higher amount of spiritual energy are often wiser, or are able to make hard decisions easily, no matter the situation. Of course, one would think that the wiser men and women becomes the better mages, but at the time of writing, our strongest mage is as hot-headed as they come, so ones wisdom is not everything._

_And at last, the chaos energy as I like to call it. As have been already mentioned, beings with higher amounts of physical energy are stronger in body, but this is not the only use. If used correctly, chaos energy may actually get a limited amount of electrical control. We have seen this as some mages have been able to start generators just with this energy. And as said, if a human is given too much, that human will die, the energy will rot the body from the inside out, leaving barely anything at all._

_I have droned on for a while now, so I expect that I am boring you with so much information. I will now give you a choice. Do you want to start your magic training? Are you ready to take upon the responsibility of a mage? Do you think you'll manage to survive my endless talking? If you think you can, sign with your blood on the slot under. Don't worry if the slots are full, if you are ready, one will manifest under the last signer.'_

Whoever wrote the scroll was wrong about one single thing. Naruto was not bored when reading something for once. It absolutely mesmerized him, everything about it. Different planes of existence, spirits, demons and other beings, magic, it was interesting as hell, and Naruto rarely thought something was interesting.

"Isn't Chakra made out of Physical and spiritual energy? Wonder what happens if you combine Physical and Natural, or all three of them." Naruto mumbled to himself, rooting through his pockets.

"Didn't I have a kunai or something on me… Hmm, no, no… What the hell was that? ... Bah, whatever!"

Naruto bit his thumb, and since the scroll sensed Naruto's intent, a slot appeared underneath the last name, a girl named Alessa Gillespie.

Glowing some more after the signature was complete, the scroll suddenly rolled shut, surprising Naruto, but what surprised him even more was that a book appeared from... Actually, he didn't know where it came from, it just appeared... Nice.

"The art of magic, volume one: The simple is always the best." Naruto couldn't help himself. He grinned from ear to ear, marveling at what can exist inside the book. Seems like he didn't need that scroll after all.

_'As have been noticed through several centuries, mages have been generally prosecuted because of their different powers, most people believing that it originates from the devil himself. This is, of course, not true, since Mana is made of Spiritual and Natural energies, but the bias of the masses have always overridden common sense. It wouldn't surprise me if circumstances still were the same in your time, dear student.'_

Naruto twitched a little when he read that.

Yeah, circumstances were pretty much the same, the only difference being that Naruto didn't KNOW why people were being idiots to HIM! Yes, he played the occasional prank on them, but it started way before that. It couldn't possibly have something to do with that childish voice in his head now, muttering about it's pretty tails and how yummy humans are, could it?

Nah.

_'As you might have guessed, because of the blatant discrimination of our kind, discretion has often been seen as the best alternative. It does not mean that it actually is the best choice one can make. In the past, there has been several noteworthy mages that were generally well-loved by the populous, the most notable one being a man named Merlin, the best friend of a long-since dead king named Arthur. What you will do with your newly-discovered status is, in the end, something which you will have to decide, but that is neither here nor there. We are here to talk about magic, and the easiest way to learn about magic is gathering mana. How to harness and control mana is two-fold. Meditation and practice._

_I have a feeling I can read your mind now. Meditation? How ridiculously boring! And I agree. I have never liked meditating for an extended period of time, always made me all stiff and jittery, but sadly enough, it is essential for a beginner to meditate so they can learn how to draw in the spiritual and natural essence in the air. Once you become proficient enough, you can easily draw in these energies unconsciously while moving._

_Now, here comes the boring part, the meditation. There are several ways to meditate, and the most well-known way is to sit down, clear your mind and chant a bunch of mumbo jumbo. I never liked to do that, made me feel like an idiot. If you are like me, as in, a bit energetic, you will most likely find this hard, but here are my method. Find an isolated spot in the nature. Sit down, close your eyes, clear your mind, and simply observe your surroundings with every other sense than your sight. Hear the nature, smell the nature, feel the nature, extend your consciousness beyond your body and simply take everything in. It's hard to show, and harder to explain through paper, so some experimentation is required from your side._

_Footnote: In case you are unsure how you can clear your mind, there are two easy methods. You can either try and block every single thought that tries to enter your mind. While this, for some, bears easy fruition, it also can be a liability for people who needs to do a conscious, constant effort, which somewhat ruins the point of meditation. The other method is to simply let your mind wander, explore your every thought and idea until there are simply nothing left but an empty silence in your mind. Of course, I do not expect you to manage to draw the required components out of your surroundings on your very first try, but at the same time, the faster you manage this, the faster we can learn some practical application towards your new-found power.'_

Naruto was unsure just how many times he had pinched himself as he read. Heck, he was sure he managed to draw blood more than once, and every time that small jolt of pain came from his actions, the giddy feeling in his chest grew.

He was no stranger to meditation. He, just like everyone else who wanted to become a ninja, had to meditate so they could gain access to the chakra that flowed through their bodies, but for some reason or another, he just knew that this meditation would delve a lot deeper in his mind than when he found his ridiculously large pool of chakra.

Oh well, time to do it. Naruto has always learned better doing stuff than simply reading about it anyway.

–**The art of magic**–

"Incendio."

Naruto grinned in satisfaction as the ground in front of him began to burn in a controlled fashion. He didn't even mumble the next spell, having already learned how to do it without the need of calling it out. He watched mesmerized as the ground underneath the burning grass suddenly tore apart from everything else, slowly floating upwards with the still-burning top-part, making a strange contrast between the red-ish-blue flames and the brown dirt.

He blinked, shaking his head slightly while he once again mumbled a spell.

"Aquamenti."

Water suddenly sprayed from thin air at the burning, floating piece of dirt, putting out the fire before Naruto let the dirt fall back to it's original spot.

It was official, magic was awesome, at least compared to jutsus. At least they were a lot easier to do, something which Naruto found as a blessing, since he had always had a hard time when it came to using and controlling the techniques he was taught at the academy. Then again, every time he had a question about them, he was always yelled at by Iruka for not listening during his lectures.

If someone had told the boy mere hours before that he would love the instructions that was written in a book more than the instructions from a teacher he would have laughed at the individuals. Now though, his mindset was a bit different.

This book, it had everything. When it started with explaining the basics of a technique, he would come upon a now familiar little mark, which was basically a magical folder full of foot-notes about the spells. Notes upon notes which somehow managed to answer every single question he could possibly have about the spells he used. Of course, the second foot-note he read basically said that despite everything, the man which had written this, and all the following books and notes did not know everything, so if Naruto ever came upon a subject he did not understand and the notes didn't help him, then there was simply one thing left for Naruto to do. Experiment and observe.

Naruto stared into the floating ball of light that lazily drifted up and down in the middle of the clearing. The first spell he learned, lumos, was what created that... What was it, an object? A creature? Or simply energy that has the peculiar effect of radiating such a shine, yet no heat comes from it? He did not know, nor did the book tell him the answer, which obviously meant that no one had actually tried to find out.

One would think that after three hours of learning and casting spells, while another spell was constantly active would have drained him. Quite the opposite infact. Naruto could not explain it, but he had an uncanny ability to easily siphon the natural and ethereal essence out from the air, constantly filling up his magical reserves. Yet, despite the constant buffing of his mana, it was still so extremely easy to control compared to chakra, which he found strange since if he had to hazard a guess, he would say that his magical reserves was at least three-fourths the size of his chakra, maybe even closer, like a nine-tenth.

Still, he was not going to look a magical gift-horse in the mouth. He was quite happy with his easy-to-control mana, at least compared to what was the health-hazard that he dared to call the chaotic, raging river of chakra in his body.

Yeah, he would stick to his magic, much more enjoyable.

He was jerked out of his thoughts as the bushed behind him rustled, and he was suddenly happy for one thing, and reminded of another thing.

He was extremely happy that he had managed to learn how to create the basic pocket-dimension, though it was only able to hold small objects like, say, his new and extremely awesome book, which he always tucked away into that dimension whenever he was testing out a new spell.

He was suddenly reminded of the theft of the scroll when Iruka came out of the bushes, a vein quite clearly thumping on his neck.

"There you are Naruto, do you have any idea what you have done?!" He yelled, stomping over to the blonde, ignoring the narrowing of the teen's eyes.

"Petrificus Totalis." He mumbled as he raised his hand at his teacher, gaining a sense of satisfaction when he saw his teacher freeze up and fall to the floor. He felt somewhat sad for the squirrels he tested this on, but not the man? Huh, strange.

"You better calm the heck down Iruka-S... Iruka, or we won't be talking at all." The agitated boy said loudly, omitting the sensei part. If the man was unwilling to answer his questions in the academy, then he was not deserving of the title as sensei.

Being around the scarred man had it's perks, since he could clearly feel the tense atmosphere around the man lessen somewhat, which gained a satisfied nod from Naruto.

He snapped his fingers, and the man felt the control over his limbs return, something which he was immensely grateful for.

"Naruto, what... What was that?" The man asked as he went into a sitting position, the fact that he was literally frozen just moments ago first now entering his mind.

Naruto just waved of the question. "I'll answer it later with the old man. Anyway, are you here to graduate me instead of Mizuki?"

"Wait, graduate? What are you talking about?" Iruka just looked baffled, which was evident by his tone of voice.

Naruto just stared at the man in confusion for a moment before something in his mind clicked. Now, Naruto was not a genius, at least not in the traditional sense, but he often had these random flashes of brilliance. Something about the scroll he had taken suddenly called back to him. It was known as the FORBIDDEN scroll of sealing, not A scroll of sealing.

"Fucking hell, he set me up!" Naruto screamed out in frustration, a pulse of mana leaving him, sensing his rising aggression, stunning Iruka at the pure power behind it.

'What is this? What has Naruto been doing these last hours? Is... Is this his chakra, only controlled?' Truly, the only time he had felt such an empowered feeling was during the Kyuubi attack. Of course, Naruto didn't have reserves THAT large, but feeling the power that the boy emitted from such a short distance was surely something not even the Hokage could replicate.

He quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed that Naruto was picking up the big scroll before striding towards him, an urgent look on his face.

"We have to get back to the old man before Mizuki finds us, he's the one that tricked me into taking the scroll, saying that learning from it was a secret way to pass."

Iruka blinked in slight confusion. "Wait, Mizuki did what you say? Naruto, are you su-WATCH OUT!"

The scream had barely left his throat before Naruto had hit the deck, the kunai flying above him before hitting the nearby cabin. The identity of the one who attacked them became quite obvious just a moment later when Mizuki, with a disgustingly sweet smile on his face asked for the scroll of sealing.

Yeah, fat chance.

"What the hell is your problem, you bastard!?" For obvious reasons, the blonde amongst the group was pissed off by the fact that he almost became a pincushion because of the silver-haired man's pointy objects, something which quite clearly was not on the boy's agenda that day.

"And while we're at it, why did you tell Naruto that taking that scroll would graduate him?"

"None of your business Iruka! Hey Naruto, want to know why everyone hates you?" Oh, how Naruto began to hate that sickly sweet smile, though he had to admit that he was interested.

"NO MIZUKI, IT'S FORBIDDEN!"

"Twelve years ago the Kyuubi attacked and was killed by the Fourth right? Well, that's wrong! The Kyuubi can't be killed, only sealed away, and the Fourth sealed away the Kyuubi in a newborn baby."

The sickly smile became maniacal, showing that the man had finally snapped.

"THAT CHILD WAS YOU, HE SEALED THE KYUUBI INTO YOU, YOU ARE THE KYUUBI!" Oh, how he delighted upon the shocked and horrified look the kid showed, and he almost let out a cackle as he grabbed one of the large shurikens strapped on his back.

"Oh thank lord."

Wait, what?

"Damn, for a moment there I actually thought I was going mental you know, with that voice in the back of my head talking to itself and everything." Wait a second, the child was smiling? He was delighted? WHAT THE HECK?

Seeing this, Mizuki did the smartest action that day.

"DIE, DAMN YOU!" He screamed as he flung the large shuriken at Naruto, smiling wryly at the soon-to-be-dead child.

Of course, the child was not defenseless anymore.

"Protego!" The defender said as he raised his arm, a blue pulse being emitted from his hand, hitting the shuriken and sending it back towards the shocked-but-still-a-ninja traitor. Of course, despite being able to dodge, he was never the best of ninja's so Naruto saw where he was about to land.

"Incendio!" A blue ball of fire flew out of his hand, litting the ground on fire where Mizuki would land. Seeing the potential danger, the traitor tried his best to steer of course, but it failed, and he found his pants on fire after he jumped away. Not that it helped much.

As Naruto slashed his hands towards the man, the burning ground followed the movement, smashing into the shocked former teacher, who soon began to scream in pain at the burning dirt who stuck to him surprisingly well. Seeing his chance, the almost forgotten Iruka sprung forwards, smashing his fist into the burning man's neck, knocking him out, and releasing him from the world of pain. The dirt then flew of the blistered man, and a quick spout of water doused the residue fire.

Naruto walked cautiously towards the downed man, toe-ing him the moment he was within reach. This only earned him a painfilled groan, but the man didn't wake up, so all in all, Naruto was pretty satisfied with the day.

"That was easy! Iruka, you sure he was a chuunin, because I know Sasuke would have done better."

Iruka only sighed in momentary relief that everything was over. He was about to ask how Naruto did those strange jutsus until what Naruto said hit him.

"Wait, did you just indirectly praise Sasuke? I thought you hated him!"

Naruto only snorted, adjusting the scroll he had secured on his back.

"Shows how much you know about me."

He quickly turned around, striding towards the village with purpose in his step.

"Anyway, I'm going to deliver this to the old man, and then me and him will have a long chat." He had to hold back the urge to say 'See ya' to him, since he was still somewhat sore about the fact Iruka somewhat held him back, even if the teacher possibly didn't realize it himself.

Iruka only stared at the spot Naruto stood just moments ago, thoughts raging through his mind while his gut told him that something was wrong.

Then something hit him.

"HEY, DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME HERE WITH MIZUKI!"

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~Spells~

Arcanus Verba: Pseudo-original spell, since I do not know of anyone else using it. A highly complicated hex, commonly used by great mages who wants to publish their works in different languages. Siphons a minimalistic amount of spiritual energy that a person emits to determine which language it will translate the written work into. One does not need to have great knowledge over other languages, but it is recommended.

Incendio: Basic fire-spell. Commonly used to lit up fire-places, but if enough power is used, one might light an entire mansion on fire. Easy to control though, no matter the power.

Vingardium Leviosa: Basic levitation-spell. Easy to learn, and has several practical applications. Rumors has it that a young boy used this spell to smash a troll in the head with its own club.

Aquamenti: Basic water-spell. Commonly used by wanderers who travels around the world. Mostly used to douse small fires and fill up flasks. A must-have spell for campers and those who loves deserts.

Petrificus Totalis: Semi-intermediate spell. Commonly used by inexperienced mages during duels. The victims arms snaps to ones side, the legs becomes stiff, and the whole body becomes unmovable. Does not stop ones momentum. Extreme muscle-power or coating ones body in mana can break the spell.

Protego: Basic shield/reflection-spell. Blocks many spells if used correctly, chance of reflecting both spells and physical objects back to the attacker. Short range, and only works infront of the caster, five feet away at max.


	2. The first taste of the occult

**AN: I am flabbergasted, and absolutely delighted with the positive responce the first chapter got!... I have absolutely forgotten what I was supposed to write here...**

**Note: Naruto is not religious, rather spiritually aware that there are higher beings out there.**

**LET'S START!**

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"Ahh, Naruto. It's great that you got here so fast."

Naruto stared at the old man before him, a content smile on his face, a smile which he seldom bore when he was younger.

It had been a month since he began his path as a mage, and he could say without a moment of hesistation that he found this road much more bearable than being a ninja.

He had told the man everything that happened. After all, if he couldn't trust the Hokage, his pseudo-grandfather, then who could he trust? Of course, he didn't tell Iruka anything, and he still kept his new-found abilities a secret. He was still a bit sore about the fact that his former 'brother' had, althought unintentionally, hindered him in his progress of being a ninja.

That was another thing that had him a tad bit depressed for a little while. He COULD become a ninja if he wanted, but he would have been counted as a late-graduate, and since the teams was chosen literally hours after the graduation, Naruto would have been placed on the back-burner without a team or a sensei... Well, at least until someone from one of the other teams died, but Naruto didn't hold his breath about that.

Heh, he could remember the face that Sasuke made when Naruto told him that, and the blonde was surprised, and incredibly heart-warmed when the wannabe-avenger rushed to the Hokage and tried to chew him out. Who knew Naruto would find such a wonderful friend just by deciding to sit beside the boy at the bridge all those years ago?

"Ehh, I wasn't doing anything important anyway, just trying to brew a simple potion that was meant as a cure against rashes."

Sarutobi chuckled at that, his heart warmed by the air of confidence and happiness that the blonde radiated. While the blonde always held such an aura, it had always felt forced, like the boy was hiding what he truly felt.

Truly, finding that book had possibly saved the boy.

"Ahh, rashes, always an annoyance. Anyway, I have finally found something suitable for you. You remember your wish, right?"

The blonde's eyes shone like the sun at the old monkey's words, a grin stretching across his whiskered face. Oh, he remembered it alright, and he was absolutely delighted that his pseudo-grandfather hadn't just left everything on the back-burner.

"**Oh, OH! A mission, what is it? Ask him, ask him, ask him!"**

Naruto had to hold in a snort of amusement at his energetic and extremely childish tenant's tendecies. He loved the old man and everything, but even he was not going to be privy of his connection with the Kyuubi, and openly laughing at nothing would kinda ruin that little secret.

"Really? What and where!?"

Oh, he remembered it. A week after his scuffle in the forest, five days after meeting the fox in his mind, he had come upon something in his book that had lit a new desire inside of him. He wanted to become not just a mage, but also someone proficient with knowledge of the occult. Ghosts, demons, spectres, sacrifices, everything supernatural that not even ninjas could explain.

He had went and talked with the Hokage, and he had pleaded his case of being the village's resident occult expert. To become a so-called expert though, he needed experience, and what better way to gather experience than to not just research, but also find supernatural beings? He gained approval, though only after a compromise had been placed.

"As you might know, there are several temples in our country which both monks and fellow believers use to pray to their gods. One such temple is actually in this village, and that place is where your target resides. There has been reports of several incidents, some of them even leading to near-death experiences. We are quite certain that there aren't any illusions that is toying with them, since our resident Genjutsu mistress has already scouted out the area. Since the monks can't seem to be able to banish whatever is wreaking havoc, I will have to ask you to check it out, and try to remove whatever is tormenting those people."

As Naruto listened, he couldn't help but shiver in anticipation. This would possibly be his first encounter with anything supernatural. To be honest, if it wasn't for the mass of spiritual and natural energies sealed away in his gut, he would most likely never have been able to learn about magic at all, so if everything went to hell, no-one could actually help him.

"Just out of curiosity, who requested this mission?" The Hokage simply gave Naruto the mission scroll, Naruto quickly locating where the client's name was supposed to be.

"Ismail Rakanishu, the head-monk of Konoha... Wait, isn't that the man who lost his wife not long ago?" Naruto asked, suspicion clear in his voice.

"I know what you are thinking Naruto, and I will have to disagree here. I know the man personally, he would never do anything to disturb the rest of the dead, especially not his own wife." Naruto actually had to agree with the old man. After all, as the Hokage, he couldn't have crazy people running around, no matter how friendly they are.

A random thought entered his mind.

"This temple, is it the one that's close to the forest of death?" The boy frowned at the nod his leader sent him, just a tiny amount of dread finding its way up his spine.

'I might have to take on with me a team or two in the future and try to cleanse that forest. The pure malice that I feel from that place is... Frightening, to say it the least.'

He was broken out of his thoughts when the door behind him was opened, Team 7 walking in.

Naruto glimpsed back towards the four people, noticing the lazy-looking, silver-haired, one-eyed Jounin, his second-year crush Sakura, his undeniabely best friend Sasuke, and someone he couldn't remember the name of. He sent a smile and a nod towards the black-haired one in the group, something which was returned.

"Ahh, Team 7, just in time. I actually have a mission for you, C-rank this time."

"Excuse me sir," The jounin said, looking up from his orange book. "But are you sure you should give my team a C-rank already?"

The Hokage just gave a curt nod. "Seeing as you aren't actually leaving the village for this one, I will have to say yes. Your mission is simple. You are to escort and help Naruto here as he's going to help the monks in our temple to banish whatever has given them trouble these last days."

"Yeah right, that idiot is probably just going to ruin everything." The pink-haired one was quickly silenced by a rough punch to the top of her head by Sasuke, an angry scowl on his face.

"Demean him one more time Sakura, and I will beat you up." The duck-haired one whispered harshly to her, making tears appear in her eyes.

"Yes, well, since Naruto in all technicallity is the client for this mission, you are to follow his orders. Is that clear?" The tone of voice the old man talked in basically meant 'oppose my decicion, I dare you.'

Hearing no complaints, he gave a nod towards the blonde teen, signaling that he was allowed to leave.

"Okay!" The blonde started as he clapped his hands, turning towards his assigned protection. "Everyone has their basic equipment with them?" He gained a nod from everyone, even Sakura who didn't dare to speak up against him in fear of angering her beloved Sasuke. "Okay, then we'll leave at once. The faster I finish this, the better it is for everyone."

The moment they left the tower, Sasuke increased his pace so he walked beside the slightly smaller boy, looking him over.

"Never told me you was going to change your attire."

Naruto only smiled mischievously at him. He was quite happy with his new clothes himself. His new standard attire consisted of black half-shoe sandals, pants that was remniscent of his old jumpsuit pants, only blue instead of orange, and a black T-shirt. Over that, he had somehow found an orange trench-coat that hung just slightly below his knees, the edges as black as his T-shirt. He had stopped wearing his green goggles, which meant that his golden hair hung slightly around his head, but he didn't mind.

"Aww, but then I couldn't see your flabbergasted face when you entered the office." Even though he looked calm inside the office when Team 7 entered, he was laughing inside his head with Kyuubi.

"Hn, Almost thought the jumpsuit was glued on you, are you sure you're Naruto?"

Naruto only rolled his eyes with a smile as he flipped the Uchiha off, the fox laughing in his head.

The childish fox had actually been his main confidant during the month, and was actually the one who snapped him out of his small bout of emoness. While many others probably would have cursed the fox for giving them a life of social isolation, Naruto was busy thanking the heavens for having someone that not only wanted to talk with him, but who actually found great enjoyment in doing it.

He could feel his stomach heat up a bit as the fox heard his thoughts, the massive-turned-small being deciding to stay silent as Naruto talked with his human friend.

That was another thing Naruto had discovered. Kyuubi was not a demon, nor was it made of chakra. Kyuubi was, in fact, a being made out of natural and ethereal energies, yet it was not made of mana. It was not made of the combined powers, but rather something that sustained itself from both of them. If Naruto had to make a theory, then he would say that the physical form was a shell made out of natural energies, and the power Kyuubi had was raw, spiritual energy.

This was the main reason as to why Naruto could, with basically no practice, draw upon spiritual and natural energies. Since Kyuubi constantly drew upon the same energies, there was always a swirling mass of energies following Naruto wherever he went, which is why he had no trouble with quite literally spamming spells left and right while at the same time keep up several other spells.

But all that was neither here or there. He had a job to do, so he set up the tempo while chatting with Sasuke.

As they closed in on the Forest of death, they saw the temple close to the fenced of training area. The chatter between Naruto and Sasuke ended as everyone noticed the tense feeling in the air, permeating not only from the forest, but also from the mansion-like temple.

"The first thing we need to do is get everyone out from the temple. I can't work if there are monks scurrying around me, since I have no idea what this being might do when it senses me."

"Senses you?" The silver-haired jounin asked, curiosity clear in his voice as he looked at the blonde.

Naruto nodded. "There is a reason why the Hokage wants me to discover what is going on. Last month, right after graduation, I awakened my bloodline, and this has given me an almost intimate connection with the astral realm, or the shadow opposite of this world as it's also called. There are several realms out there, but the only important one for us right now is the astral realm. If we are lucky, we will only come upon a prankster spirit. If we are unlucky though... Well, I won't look away from the chance that I might face a demon."

Who said being a former prankster is a bad thing? Made lying a lot easier, that's for sure... Well, the only part he lied about was him having a bloodline, but in his mind, that was the most important part.

Of course, the moment the word demon left his mouth, everyone but him stiffened, especially the Jounin, the Kyuubi attack clear in his mind.

"... If it's a demon, what's the chance that it will be as strong as Kyuubi?"

"None." The incredulous look the one-eyed man sent him made him snicker. "Believe me, if it was as strong as Kyuubi, we would already have been attacked. That, or all the monks would be dead by now, which they clearly are not." He said as he pointed towards the monks tending to the flowers, though the uneasy aura was quite clearly effecting them.

It only took another minute for them to be withing talking range, and by then the head-monk had already been made aware about the incoming ninja's and mage. The doors of the walls that surrounded the temple quickly opened, and an old man hobbled as fast as his caned limping would allow.

"You must be the ones we asked for, and you young one, are you Naruto Uzumaki?" He wheezed out, earning a nod from everyone as Naruto walked up to the man.

"I'm Naruto, and I'll guess that you are Ismail?" The old man nodded."Can you tell me what this apparition has done?"

The old man smiled, a happy glint in his aging eyes. "I have heard favorable things about you from old Hiruzen." He quickly turned around, motioning for them to follow.

"It started innocently enough about a week ago with random things having moved to places they weren't at before. After that, we begun to lose objects. We hired a ninja to see if he could find the thief, but to no avail. We even had a Genjutsu master here to check if there was an illusion around, but apparently, there was none. Then, three days ago, our otherworldly guest turned hostile. It started with slight pushes and tripping, but just yesterday, one of our monks was almost killed as he was attacked by one of the swords that hangs from our walls. It was just by pure luck that we managed to get out in time. Luckily, the one who was attacked will survive since we reached the hospital in time."

Naruto listened to the story as they entered the outer grounds of the temple. It was quite clear by the fear in their eyes that none of the dared to enter main grounds of the ancient site.

"I'll try my best. By the sounds of it, this sounds like an angry ghost that has been corrupted by that damn forest not far from here." He turned towards his team while motioning towards the grateful old man and the watching monks. "Team 7, please help the head-monk to evacuate the temple. After that is done, secure the area and make sure no one enters."

After a quick nod of affirmative, the ninja's made the bald men leave the temple, and it was clear by the grumbling that some of them was not happy to leave this to who they saw as only a kid. One man in particular was quite slow, which gained an angry twitch from Naruto.

Suddenly, a random stream of water hit the man straight in the face, and the sputtering of the man drew the laughter of more than a few fellow disciples. He threw a glare at Naruto who glared right back, showing that right now he was in no mood for that kind of behavior.

Half a minute later the courtyard was empty, and Team 7 had positioned themselves on each of the four corners of the outer walls, signifying the start of his mission. He made sure to take one of the tourist maps with him just in case.

–**The art of magic**–

Striding inside the temple that wished it was a mansion, he put his hand in one of the pockets on his trench-coat, searching for something momentarily before pulling out his magic book.

He hadn't found his own catalyst yet, which somewhat angered him, so for now he used the book. Contrary to popular belief, a catalyst, or a wand as many wizards of old called them, did actually not boost the power of spells. It helped a person to focus their mana to cast more intricate spells, and it was often used to block magical attacks by casting Protego over the wand, this made magic duels seem more like fencing.

The last week before he was called in for the current mission, he actually went on a hunt for a suitable catalyst, but the search had ended up with him frustrated beyond belief, and several trees missing in the forest surrounding Konoha due to his ire. Of course, Naruto could cast most of his arsenal of charms and hex's without any incantation, but that did not mean he could cast all of them perfectly. For the moment, the book had to do, but the book had a special charm on it which made it slightly attuned to everybody, but it also meant that one could never reach their full potential unless they found their own private catalyst.

"Homenum Revelio."

Nothing happened, which made Naruto nod in satisfaction. Good, this meant that no-one was inside. Still, the trepidation he felt made him somewhat jittery, which was understandable since this was his first real job as a mage.

Ever so slowly he walked through the entrance hall, and by the time he neared the common room, a slamming sound reverberated from behind him, a quick glance showing that the doors had been slammed shut.

'Why do I have this feeling that this might be more than a simple, angry ghost?' He shook the thought away as he entered the common room. The mats that was used to pray on was strewn randomly across the room, yet, for some reason, the altar, which would have been the natural goal of destruction for any ghost stood untouched.

He shivered slightly as a cold wind blew past him, his head turning slowly back and forth as he glared at nothing. With a small sigh he looked at the map.

'Let's see, to my left and right is the restingrooms for the monks, and behind the altar is Ismail's office... I'll check the restrooms first... He's watching me, I can feel it.' Holding back a shiver, he quickly turned left, almost running towards the door leading to one of the shared bedrooms.

It was simple enough, a large space with several mats and sheets on the floor, a random book here and there, signifying that some of them liked writing journals or diaries. For some reason though, he was drawn towards one of them, and as he skimmed through the random journal, a scowl slowly appeared on his face. Flipping to the last entry, his scowl turned into a full-on sneer, a low growl leaving him as even Kyuubi was pissed of beyond relief by what he saw.

"So this bastard thinks he can just play around with the occult? I'll show him what happens when you meet a true practioner of mana." He almost snarled out, dropping the offending piece of litterature inside his surprisingly large pocket. In his anger he almost blew apart the door, but he barely reigned in his temper before destroying more than what was needed.

As he once again entered the commonrooms, he quickly tilted his head to the side as a sword flew past him, cutting his ear a bit as it pierced the wall. A moment of silence ensued as this registered in the boy's mind before he slowly raised his arm, touching his ear and feeling the part that was clipped.

His anger returned ten-folds.

'So the bastard is playing with me?' He thought as he rummaged through his pocket, taking out a small bell and a small, metal pen. 'Well, let's see how it likes having its mind scrambled.' And with that, he rapped the bell hard with the pen, the sound it made echoing through the halls of the temple.

No one had ever discovered why, but high-pitch sounds, usually those from small bells, had an interesting effect against astral beings. The best comparison one could make was that the effect mimicked the pain of a searing migraine, but it also had the effect of making ghost-like beings tangible for those with high amounts of spiritual energies, something which Naruto possessed.

Naruto paled slightly as a shriek was heard from all around him, a sense of dread rising in his chest as the notion that he might have taken on something far stronger than him finally settled in.

With but a flick of his wrist did he manifest several glowing blue spheres around his form before rising his spiritual pressure, his trench-coat flapping in an invisible wind as a pale, blue aura flowed around him.

"Show yourself limited being!" He yelled, using a taunt that he knew would anger the apparition. Of course, not a moment later did he somewhat regret that as he barely dodged an ice-spear that was thrown at him, the floating orbs shooting towards the direction where the ice came from, a small explosion of ethereal energy signifying that they hit something.

Another shriek followed, and Naruto barely managed to put up a barrier as several claw-like tendrils shot towards him. Of course, even if they bounced off the temporary barrier they continued attacking, knowing that it would eventually drain the offender of his strength. Naruto had other ideas though.

"Jaculatio Grandinis!" He roared as a multitude of large ice-javelins manifested and flew at the tentacles, piercing some while the rest retreated. He didn't care about the damage towards the temple, he could fix it later.

Another shriek, then he felt himself being pushed back despite his shield, the wailing ghost somehow having managed to blindside him. He blanched as the claws slashed through his protection, himself to slow to dodge as he was raked across the torso. He quickly jumped back before sending more spheres at the creature, momentarily stunning it.

The apparition was large, over seven feet tall, but extremely thin. Its arms hung down to its knees, with claws where the fingers should be, each of them at least a foot in length. Long, thin and somewhat unruly hair hung around the female ghosts head like a drape, the hair on its back almost hanging to its ankles. He could see almost nothing of its face, but the large mouth with sharp teeth stood out like a tumor. It was no wonder how it could shriek like it had done.

Naruto was not amused by the sight.

"A fucking banshee!?" He screamed as he sent several orbs at the being, only stalling it momentarily. "Seems like I need my strongest spells for this."

"Jaculatio Grandinis!" He shouted again, stabbing the Banshee while forcing it to the wall, pinning it to it as to immobilize it.

"Centum Lanceae Umbrae!"

A literal wave of spiritual energy left him before condencing into a hundred black spears. For just a moment, the Banshee stopped struggling agaisnt the ice-javelins, then she was pierced by the black magic, earning another wail that rattled the building.

"Umbrae Septemplex Paries Anti-corporalis." The blonde muttered as darkness wrapped around him in a sphere, protecting him from the banshee.

"Damn, of all the things I have to suck at, it has to be holy spells." Despite his limitations, he began focusing on the only divine curse he had somewhat mastered, knowing that the shadow spears would only temporarely stall the ghost, seeing as that particular type of ghost was a monster born from a woman's darkness.

"Ye lord, I pray for thee to help me in the salvation of this poor soul. May your divine light shine through for this corrupted being." His eyes snapped open as a claw tore through the darkness, stopping right before his face.

"Go back to the abyss where you belong." He muttered as the book in his left arm began to shine a white light. The darkness blew apart, knocking the phantom away.

"Vincula judícium!"

The bright light was abruptly stopped as a pure, white chain shot from his outstretched hand, entering the screeching ghost. Several other chains came from the floor and wrapped around the struggling being, a portal opening underneath it. As the wailing being was dragged down into the darkness, it couldn't help but let out a last shriek of despair. Naruto grabbed his chest as if pained, yet no wound was visible. Finally the portal closed, then everything went silent except for the gasps of pain and excertion from the blonde.

After a moment he fell to his knees, one hand on the floor while the other still clutched his chest, his breathing haggard as he tried to control himself.

"**Big brother? You okay?"**

Despite not seeing it, Kyuubi could feel the affirmative nod the blonde sent him.

"I'll survive, that last scream just surprised me is all." He muttered as he slowly got his breathing back in control, the wounds from the claws still stinging somewhat fierce as they seemingly refused to close, yet almost no blood leaked from them. If anything, he felt quite numb underneath the pain.

"Heh, my mana reserves are actually somewhat low, seems like I'm not as strong as I believed... That last attack, it should have temporarely paralyzed me at least, which means that I fought a low-ranking banshee... Damn, I'm a lot weaker than I thought,"

He forced himself to his feet, the book still held tightly by his hand as he slowly walked towards the entrance hall. Before he left the room though he focused his mana again, noticing the damage.

"Reparo Maxima." He uttered, a satisfying glint in his eyes as he watched the enviroment fix itself. Like hell he would pay for the damage.

The moment he opened the doors, he was jumped by the concerned team, Sakura actually fussing over him, noticing the wounds from the claws and his clipped ear.

"**Wait, didn't the girl hate you? Man, girls are so weird."**

'Yeah, I thought the same, but apparently I was wrong... Not gonna complain though.' He quickly noticed the old monk hobbling towards him, the outer gate having been unlocked after Team 7 left their posts.

"Mr. Uzumaki, are you okay? We heard the heart-wrenching screams, and we believed the worst." It was a bit touching for Naruto that so many looked at him with concern, but he quickly schooled his features as he looked amongst the crowd.

"Ismail, does the name Radament say anything to you?" The Head-monk blinked in confusion before nodding. "Can you bring him here please?"

"Of course. Radament, come here please!" The crowd quickly dispersed as the disgruntled man that Naruto had hit with the Aquamenti walked forward, the scowl from before still in place.

"Team 7, arrest that man!" Several cries of outrage was heard from the monks as Kakashi didn't hesistate to bind the man, earning angry curses from the bald man.

"Mr. Uzumaki, what is the meaning of this?" Ismail was surprised and a bit angry at the harsh treatment his monk got, but he got slightly curious when Naruto gave him a certain journal that he took from the restingroom he had checked.

"I've marked the pages which I want you to read." The man only looked a bit confused before opening the book, flipping to one of the marked pages. He read the text aloud for everyone to hear.

_'Who would have thought that head-mistress Andariel was this gullible? Truly, how easy it was to trick the mistress into drinking tea with berry-juice from the Belladonna plant. It won't be long now before the hallicunations start, and they will be forced to restrain her in her room. Soon, my lovely lady, soon you will know how much I love you.'_

Ismail was sweating, the pure shock of what he just discovered almost breaking him. He quickly turned to the last marked page, skipping the parts he knew would talk about his wife being violated.

_'I can't explain it, but for the last few days, strange happenings has occured. Moving objects, items randomly dissapearing, and such an overwhelming aura of dread. Is this the mistress' way of getting revenge? If so, then I will simply have to find a way to raise her from her grave and become my subject, willing or not. I have heard rumors about a boy in the village with strange powers, maybe I can trick him into trying to raise my beloved? Of course, if anyone catches us dabbling in Necromancy, I'll simply have to blame the boy. After all, who doesn't hate a witch-boy?'_

Not a single person moved. Radament was shaking, his face pale as a cold sweat had started bursting from him. He could have taken torture and killing intent, but this aura of pure emptiness that radiated from the Head-monk... It was unbearable.

"...Mr. Jounin, please take him away." Ismail said, his voice barely above a broken whisper. With nary a sound the silver-haired man nodded before dissapearing with the traitorous man, the silence still permeating the air. Ismail slowly turned towards Naruto, his face full of anguish, but his eyes showed a small amount of happiness for finally finding closure.

"Mr. Uzumaki, how can I thank you for this?"

Naruto only gave a sad smile before walking up to the man, whispering his request in the man's ear. A look of understanding slowly formed on the man's face, and he gave an equally sad smile and a nod. Naruto took a step back before saluting.

"We will be taking our leave now. If you ever need anything, you just have to ask."

"Farewell Naruto Uzumaki, may the heavens guide thee."

He watched as the rest of Team 7 and Naruto dashed away. The moment they were out of ear-shot he slowly turned around towards the temple, the boy's words ringing through his mind.

"_You know who I am and what I carry. My wish is for this temple to lay my spirit to rest, so my afterlife will be a peaceful one. And please, when I die, bless my tenant too, he is eternally sorry for what he did."_

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Harry Potter spells

Homenum revelio: Intermediate spell. The caster emits an unseen pulse that travels throughout the entire structure he resides in. Used to reveal how many living humans are in an area.

Reparo Maxima: Semi-intermediate spell. An advanced version of the reparo spell, usually used to repair entire rooms or structures. The more damaged the object one wants to repair is, the more taxing the spell is, which is the main reason as to why it is a borderline intermediate spell.

Negima spells

Jaculatio Grandinis: Intermediate ice-spell. An attack spell which summons and shoots down dense packs of ice spears. Because it takes the physical form of spears, it is often limited to be used as a form of ballistics.

Centum Lanceae Umbrae: Semi-advanced darkness-spell. An attack spell which gives physical form to shadow 'spears', allowing them to penetrate magical shields and most spiritual creatures.

Umbrae Septemplex Paries Anti-corporalis: Semi-advanced darkness-spell. The user draws the shadows and darkness around him to form a sort of circular coccon, shielding the user from most attacks. Note: Creatures with high atunement towards darkness will break the shield somewhat easily.

Other spells

Soul Sphere: Basic spiritual-spell. Small and weak despite large numbers, this spells only good side is the homing ability it has, which makes it useful to find hidden opponents, or to distract the target. The usefulness and lethality of this spell is often discussed though, since a wizard was once rumored to be able to manifest a nigh-infinite number of them, enough to take down entire armies alone.

Vincula judícium: Pseudo-original, Intermediate divine-spell. This spell is often used by experienced divine mages to banish paricularely dangerous spectres. One should be wary though, since stronger spectres might be able to break out of the chains, or they might even be able to drag you into the abyss with them. Unexperienced casters often has to do a small chant before casting the spell though, so the risks of using this particular spell is many, both when it comes to time-constraint, and back-fire.


	3. The Pope

**AN: There was originally fifteen lines worth of rant here. It's gone now.**

**This chapter just created itself. I wrote the whole thing in a day, which is a rare thing for me to manage. And there was almost no errors when I looked through it! *Proudness galore***

**LET'S START!**

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_'Lacewing flies (stewed for twenty-one days)_

_Leeches_

_Powdered bicorn horn_

_Knotgrass_

_Fluxweed (picked at full moon)_

_Shredded Boomslang skin_

_A bit of the person one wants to turn into (typically hair)'_

Naruto stared stupidly down at the list of ingredients which he needed for his latest project. He had a fair amount of Knotgrass, having a personal little garden for it actually, he knew what Leeches and hair was obviously. The rest though... He had no bloody idea what the rest was. Maybe skipping straight to Polyjuice might have been just a tad bit stupid.

'Damn you potions, why do you have to ramp up in difficulty so quickly?' He couldn't help but sigh in frustration as he dragged a hand through his hair, noticing that he should probably have it cut soon. A somewhat negative part depending on a person's point of view about being a Jinchurriki, your hair grows faster than normal. Then again, something that was to be expected as everything except for the ones physical age and stature grew faster than normal when one was a vessel.

He did randomly wish sometimes though that he could grow a bit taller.

'I can just go to the hospital for the leeches, and hair is basically the easiest material I have ever needed to gather... I have no freaking idea what some of this is though.'

"**At least the new book has some pretty pictures!"** The blonde could envision the fox jumping around in glee, a happy spark in the surprisingly innocent red-slitted eyes. He couldn't hold back his grin.

'Yeah, the problem is that I have never seen any of those plants around Konoha, nor have I seen a boomslang around here either, and what the heck is a bicorn? Gah, stupid potions.' He thought, scowling at the new book that had randomly spawned from his other book.

"**Still, pretty pictures."** This time the fox sent an image of itself looking at Naruto, (un)knowingly being extremely adorable.

'Dammit, you're making it so hard being angry at stuff, you know that?' The smile that tugged on his lips somewhat dampened the half-hearted scolding he sent towards the childish fox. Truly, the being inside of him could not possibly be the rage-filled entity that attacked almost thirteen years ago.

He had actually been thinking pretty hard about that issue. Of course, he only did that when Kyuubi was asleep, he didn't want to upset his pseudo little brother after all.

Something didn't add up with the whole 'I am a terrible monster' thing. For one, if he actually was a high and mighty destructive entity, then why did he act like an immature child? Of course, there might be something more about the seal than Naruto knew about, like a mind-scrambling seal or something similar, but to have such a drastic effect like this? No, it did not seem likely.

Then there was the Dead Demon Consuming Seal which was placed over the eight-triagram seal. He had no freaking idea what any of the seals really did, except for the basics. The Dead Demon Consuming seal basically rips a being's soul out of one's body, which can then be used to seal the soul into oneself, or someone else. Then again, the one who uses the seal dies anyway, so yeah, Naruto would rather NOT learn how to perform it.

Naruto had a hypothesis that Kyuubi's mind somehow got altered when the Fourth used the seal on it, but he had no ways to prove his suspicion. Then again, for all he knew he might be completely wrong, but he still had to thank the old man again when he saw him for teaching Naruto the basics.

Of course, the cynical side of him couldn't help but believe that this was all just a ruse, that Kyuubi was simply playing with Naruto's emotions by acting like a child, biding his time so he could easily manipulate Naruto into releasing him due to a blind belief that the currently small fox was Naruto's friend and pseudo-brother. He always banished those thoughts, but the nagging voice inside his head still filled him with just a touch of worry and suspicion.

Of course, none of this was on Naruto's mind at that moment as he was busy trying to find out how to get out of the village to gather materials. Thankfully, the last few pages of his new book about potion and poison brewing had a large list of ingredients he would need during the entire book, so he wouldn't have to make a list himself.

"The old man won't just let me leave without an escort though, and I really only want to travel with Team 7, but they are on another C-rank mission... Oh well, can at least ask." And with his new goal in mind, he set of towards the mission-room where the Hokage would most likely sit and distribute missions.

As he neared the distribution room he couldn't help but think of the architecture, namely the fact that the Hokage's office, the mission-distribution room and the Academy was connected together. It was both an excellent design, and completely retarded. Excellent, because the Hokage would be able to protect the academy students on a moments notice, retarted because in a war, the Hokage's office and the Hokage's residence would be the two primary targets, along with the academy, risking the lives of all the students because two out of three targets was basically back in back.

'Oh well, the village has been in three wars, and the current layout seems to have worked so far. Why fix what isn't broken?... And why the hell do I think about this?' Shaking his head, he quickly bounded up the stairs, leading to his destination, smiling at the old man that thankfully sat behind the quite long table.

"Hey gramps!" The boy said, grinning at the smile that formed on the Hokage's face.

"Hello Naruto, How are you holding up since last week?" He didn't really need to ask, since he saw that Naruto's ear still had that cut on it, which probably meant that the scars he got from the Banshee was still there.

"Except for a bit of phantompain, pretty good, but I kinda have a favor to ask of you." He said, suddenly looking a bit sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand.

"Let me guess, this has something to do with your potion-making?" He couldn't help but sigh at the resigned nod the somewhat short blonde sent his way. "And let me guess, most of the ingredients aren't within the village walls." Another nod, which meant only one thing.

"You know I won't let you leave the village alone Naruto, and I can't just randomly send someone to escort you without pay." Both he and Naruto grimaced at that, both knowing how it felt to not have money.

This left the blonde in a bit of a predicament. He couldn't just ask for a C-rank mission, since the only Genin-team he really trusted was Team 7, and a B-rank would leave him with a bunch of nosy Chuunin. He could already hear poor Gama-chan scream in hunger at his decision.

"How much would a long-term, A-ranked ANBU protection mission cost?"

Sarutobi almost choked on his own spit as the boy's words registered in his mind.

"An A-rank? Truly Naruto, this potion of yours can't be that important now, can it?"

"This is not just for one potion, but for all of them. I want to gather a good amount of every ingredient I could possibly need, enough for me to hopefully be able to produce most of it myself by the end of it." Hiruzen only leaned back in his surprisingly comfortable chair, noticing out of the corner of his eyes the other people in the room sending glances at them.

"Do you know where any of the materials you need are?" The sheepish look and the averting of the blonde's eyes told him everything. So he would need an ANBU that was also a Botanist or a horticulturist. He had the exact team for that. With a motion that Naruto didn't catch, he called for an ANBU which appeared right in front of him.

"Puma, get Buffalo and his team please." With a quick nod the woman dissappeared.

"A long-term A-rank mission will cost approximately six-months worth of your orphan stipend." He said to Naruto, noticing the grimace that spread across the teen's face. Still, the blonde began searching his deep pockets for his trusty frog-shaped wallet, a small nod leaving him as he retrieved his trusty wallet, making Sarutobi question just how much was in it since it looked... Well, slim was a bit of an understatement.

Naruto ignored the incredulous look sent his way as he opened his wallet and, to everyone's amazement, somehow got his whole arm down the little piece of cloth and metal, a look of minor consentration on the boy's face as he calculated the specific amount. A moment later a satisfied glint entered his eyes as he retrieved his hand, six neat stacks of notes in his hand, all held together with rubberbands.

"Here you go, forty-five thousand Ryo." He said as he threw the money on the table, inwardly wincing .

'Damn, there went most of my money. This better be worth it.' Kyuubi was trying his hardest to comfort the crying chibi-Naruto in his head. The old man could only blink stupidly for a moment before collecting himself.

"Well, yes. I see no reason to hold you back now, and your team should be here any moment now. Luckily for you, the team I picked has a plant entusiast, so he will probably know where the required materials are." The moment he finished, four ANBU materialized in front of him, kneeling as a sign of submission.

"You called, Lord Hokage?"

"Yes I did Buffalo. I have a possibly long-term, A-rank protection mission for you. You are to protect young Naruto here, and help him gather the required materials needed for his proffesion, is that clear?"

"Yes sir." Buffalo said as the whole team rose as one. Sarutobi had, after a long discussion with Naruto, got the reluctant honor of telling the ANBU about his unique skills. He had been smart though, and only told those who had served in the black-ops force for at least three years, somewhat ensuring that whoever he told it to would not question his words for a single moment. After all, no one comes into ANBU without being absolutely devoted to the Hokage and the village, and those extra years was basically just a last insurance.

He gave a nod to the blonde, telling him that the floor was his.

"Alright," The blonde said as he clapped his hands together, gaining the attention of the ANBU. "I'll be honest and say that I have no idea how long this mission will be. I don't even know if we have to exit the country or not, but I have the utmost confidence in you four. Now, which of you is the botanist?"

The ANBU for just a quick moment, stared at the blond boy in a stupified fashion. For just a quick moment, they could have sworn that they looked at a young Minato Namikaze. The resemblance was downright frightening, which actually got the whole team thinking. Just who are you Naruto Uzumaki?

Breaking out of their stupor, the one with the bird-mask stepped forward.

"I'm Sparrow, and I am the second-best botanist and horticulturist in the village. The honor of Konoha's greatest plant-specialist goes to Inoichi Yamanaka. Do you have a list, or possibly some pictures so I can identify what you need?" His question was honored with Naruto once again rummaging through his pockets. The boy quickly found the book and marked the pages Sparrow would need.

"The writing is most likely impossible for you to read because of a special security measure on the book, but you should be able to use the pictures." The affirmative nod he got made him sigh in relief. He did NOT want to search the entire library just to find the correct pictures. After a minute of memorizing the images, the ANBU snapped the book shut before giving it back to the blue-eyed client.

"You're in luck, I actually know what everything is despite the fact that some of it is pretty obscure and extremely rarely used. I also noticed that a lot of the plants and herbs thrive in salt sea-air, which means our first stop should be in the port-town east for Otafuku Gai. How fast are you?"

"I can proudly say that I'm able to outrun most, if not all Chuunin in Konoha." The boy said, just a touch of self-satisfaction in his voice. The whole Anbu-team gave a satisfied nod, happy that they could set out in a reasonable speed.

"Good, that means we should be able to reach Otafuku Gai within midnight today. If we leave from Otafuku Gai early tomorrow morning, we might be able to reach the port-town before the sun sets. Both Otafuku Gai and the port-town is east from here, and the port-town is pretty close to The Land Of Hot Water. When we are done there we can cut through Hot Water and enter The Land Of Frost, since I also noticed that a few of your plants thrive in climates colder than Fire Country."

Somehow, Naruto had pulled a map over the elemental nations from his pocket, so Sparrow decided to point out the different destinations and routes they could take. A smile stretched across the youths face, gratitude emanating from the simple act.

"Let's get moving then. The faster we get to Otafuku Gai, the more rest we can get. All of you ready?" He asked as he rolled up his map again, dropping the piece of paper back in his pocket as the four ANBU stood tall and proud, a clear and resounding 'Yes' coming from all of them.

None of them could explain it, but they all had a good feeling about this mission.

–**The art of magic**–

'H-how did he survive all that? HOW THE FUCK DID HE SURVIVE THOSE ATTACKS!'

"**I can feel him coming, please run faster Naruto! Please, I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU BROTHER!"**

'He shrugged of their attacks like they were nothing, and then he killed them so easily... Where can I run, where can I hide!?'

He had been running for over an hour, yet no matter where he went, he felt that oppressing aura follow him, taunting him, hunting him. He could hear the man scream, his speech full of obsceneties, which was somewhat ironic when he thought about the man's self-proclaimed proffesion.

He just wanted to help them! He just couldn't stand by and watch that... that mad priest butcher them for this insane god of his! He didn't heed Buffalo's call for him to stop, nor did it register in his brain that Sparrow called the man an S-rank ninja. All that went through Naruto's mind was that he needed to save the family.

He was too late though. He watched the man slay the crying mother as she embraced her dead daughter, his maniacal laughter filling the air as his red, triple-bladed scythe cut through both the mother and her child, the blood staining the surrounding fauna.

Something within Naruto snapped, and he drew upon his brother's energy, something the now rage-filled fox gladly gave him. This man was not to be allowed to live. Repercussions be damned, this albino monster was not to be allowed to harm anyone else.

He didn't think about it, he just used it.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

A streak of green lightning flew from Naruto's outstretched hand, heading towards the still laughing psychopath as the man swiftly turned around, his own hand outstretched in a similar way to Naruto's own. Naruto grinned a bitter smile, knowing that the man was now guaranteed to die. Naruto's soul might be torn to pieces after this, but he didn't care. It was worth it if he saved the lives of so many others.

The attack hit.

Nothing happened.

Naruto just stood there, shocked that the killing curse failed, and panic begun to flood him.

"BOMBARDA MAXIMA!"

As the glowing, compressed ball of doom speed towards the still grinning lunatic, Naruto couldn't help but think about the first, and until then only time he had used that particular spell. The Hokage had seen the explosion, and when the man had seen the crater, he, along with the ANBU that followed him was absolutely stunned. According to the old man, a single Bombarda Maxima had potentially a higher blast-radius and blast-force than over a hundred explosive notes, something which made Naruto both giddy and a bit scared. He vowed to only use the spell when the risk of hurting his companions was zero.

His current protection had heard about that particular spell, and they couldn't help but pity the poor madman, as it seemed like he had no intentions of dodging it.

Moments before the sphere of mass destruction hit the pink-purple-ish-eyed Albino, the blonde took a quick glance at the dead family, remorse hitting him as the bodies would most likely be destroyed. He would give them a proper funeral later.

What the man did next though almost gave Naruto and the ANBU a heart-attack.

He snatched the sphere out from the air, held it in his hand for a moment, and then it simply dispersed, as if it had never been there at all.

"Is that all you can do, you fucking heretic? Lord Jashin will be pleased by your blood, you heathen!" As he screamed that at the frozen blonde, he began to draw a strange symbol on the ground from the blood of his sacrifices, something which made Naruto pale in pure terror. His original book had quickly skimmed over the different religions and their symbols, and the symbol that monster in human flesh drew was from the most dangerous of them all.

Jashinism.

He was broken out of his moment of terror as the man once again yelled at him.

"Ya know what, since I am fucking bored, I will give you one last shot, if only to see that last hopeful glimpse in your eyes fade away as I spill your blood!"

The man didn't need to tell him twice.

"Centum Lanceae Umbrae!"

As the hundred spears of darkness materialized around the man, he couldn't help but give out an impressed whistle.

"Not bad."

And with that, he was speared by them all, a massive dust-cloud obscuring their view, the ANBU quickly jumping in front of the blonde just in case the man somehow survived.

"**Brother, I can still feel him in there. Be careful."**

"It's not over yet." The blonde muttered, his four guards tensing, ready for almost everything. A moment after his declaration, hundreds of black spikes shot out of the dust, crashing into the barrier Naruto barely managed to get up in time. **(1)**

He grunted in slight exhaustion when the barrage stopped, confusion filling up his mind.

"**Brother, those black things suck out your spiritual energy!"** Well, that explained his random bout of tiredness.

The five people was forced to split up as the scythe came flying towards them, a cable attached to it, though they were all shocked when it suddenly changed direction, slashing Sheep across the chest, but just deep enough to draw blood. A quick wind-jutsu from Frog dispersed the remaining dust-cloud, giving them a prime view of the mad priest licking the blood of his weapon.

"Buffalo, who is this guy?" Naruto asked as he watched the man's skin turn black with white markings, making him look somewhat like a skeleton.

"His name is Hidan, an S-ranked missing-nin from the former Village Hidden In Hot Springs. Apparently, he went berzerk when the village decided to become a tourist attraction instead of a ninja village." This was said over the newly identified Hidan's screams as he pulled another black spike out from the sleeves of his surprisingly still intact purple robes. A moment later he did something none of them expected. He pierced his own heart.

Silence permeated the area as no-one moved, then a moment later Sheep clutched his chest before collapsing, blood beginning to flow from underneath his uniform. Naruto paled at the expression of pure bliss that showed on the black and white man's face, a revelation hitting him like a ton of bricks.

'This man... He's not just a practitioner of Jashinism, nor is he a normal priest. He has the blessings of Jashin himself... This man, he's an arch-bishop.'

"Naruto." His eyes snapped over to Buffalo as the man watched Hidan come down from his near orgasmic bliss. "You have to get away from here. Don't look at me like that, because I can see in your eyes that you have no idea how to stop this man. Seven O'clock from my position, that is the way back to Otafuku Gai. You should be safe there, as the city is fairly heavily protected after all."

Naruto wanted to protest, to say that he could help, that he didn't want to leave them, but something in the man's voice stopped him. It took a moment for him to understand what he heard, but when he pieced it together he teared up a bit.

Buffalo's voice was filled with affection and grim acceptance.

Naruto sent them all an unsure smile, a tear sliding down his whiskered cheek.

"Thank you, all of you, for everything."

The moment he turned to run, the three remaining ANBU yelled out their jutsus, and Naruto knew that they hit, since the man screamed that 'It hurt, fuckheads!'

He was forced to hear one more scream from his friends when he ran though, and he hadn't stopped for a single moment. Naruto had to admit, he had become somewhat disoriented in the forest, and he felt that he was running in circles. Naruto couldn't continue like this. He was tired, dirty, and his fear made it hard to think. No matter what he did, the man seemed to home onto him, and he couldn't understand why. The fox heard his thoughts, and he almost slapped himself for not remembering.

"**Brother, it's your mana! He's homing onto your mana!"**

Naruto only cursed himself for forgetting something as basic as that. While a ninja, no matter how strong, would have an extremely hard time noticing his mana, a priest would be an entirely different matter. Naruto didn't feel it in their original meeting, but during his failing escape, he had been even more terrified. Naruto was proud to say that his mana-reserves finally was larger than his chakra-reserves. Well, it wasn't really reserves, but rather the amount his body could safely contain at any time. Hidan's 'reserves' was at least ten times larger, and yet it was somehow even more refined than Naruto's own.

'Forget calling him an Arch-bishop, he's the freaking Jashinist Pope!' He quickly bounced of a branch, avoiding the black spike that had penetrated who knew how many trees.

He couldn't escape, he couldn't fight. One last chance, and that was to hide.

'Lil' bro, I'll cast one last spell, and when I have done that, block of my mana and chakra. If this doesn't work, then... Well, We will meet on the other side.'

The Kyuubi didn't answer, he just filled Naruto with all the love he felt towards his brother. Naruto would have cried right there if not for the situation.

Naruto stopped before jumping down to the ground, pressing his back to a tree before whispering his possibly last incantation.

"Post Tenebris Tatitantes."

He could feel the spell working, the shadows around him covering him before blending in with the background, perfectly molding into the tree. Barely a moment later he felt extremely weak as Kyuubi did as asked, himself not able to feel his beloved powers. He breathed as silently as possible, so silently infact that only the best trackers would be able to hear him.

It did not take long for the Jashinist to walk past his tree. The man stopped before looking around, his triple-bladed scythe ready for any kind of attack. Suddenly, he slammed his scythe at the tree which Naruto had decided as his cover, the innermost blade barely cutting his ear, a mere centimeter below where the Banshee had sliced him almost two weeks earlier.

Everything was silent, then Hidan let go of his scythe before running a hand through his slicked-back hair, a frustrated sigh leaving his mouth.

"That sacrilegious heretic got away, I should really learn to fucking stop playing with my victims... Oh well, Lord Jashin got several sacrifices today, so my lord will probably forgive me for my blasphemous action of letting someone live."

The second he finished talking he ripped his weapon out of the tree before slashing in front of him, barely missing a black and white man-plant thing. Hidan narrowed his eyes at the strange amalgam of a creature in front of him. Normal ninjas he could easily take down, but this human-like venus-flytrap... Something about it unsettled him, so for once he decided to be cautious.

"What the fuck do you want?"

The perfect metaphor for Yin and Yang only placed down a piece of paper before moving away, looking as if he awaited an answer. The religious man slowly walked up to it before piercing the paper with his scythe, lifting it to his hands before snapping it to him, scanning the small, but to the point letter. An insanely satisfied grin slowly stretched across his face, though he seemed to think at the same time.

"Tell your leader that I will think about it, and that I am seriously considering this fucking good deal." The creature in black robes adorned with red clouds gave a nod of acceptance before sinking into the ground, disappearing without a single sound. Burning up the paper in his hands he placed his scythe on his back before walking away, whistling a jaunty tune all the way.

Twenty minutes later, Naruto appeared from behind his spell, the adrenaline leaving his body as tears went down his face, both happiness and anguish shining in his sky-blye eyes. He slowly slid down to the ground, small sobs racking his body as Kyuubi tried its best to comfort his brother.

"T-They sacrificed their l-lives for me..." He mumbled to himself, the four ANBU standing out in his mind, everything they had done together the last days playing out before his eyes. Slowly but surely the tears dried up, and another person stood clear in his mind.

A somewhat handsome face, silver, slicked-back hair, pink-purple-ish-eyes with a mad glint in them, a sick grin, purple robes, and a red, triple-bladed scythe. It started slowly, but both he and Kyuubi felt it grow, and none of them tried to stop it. Slowly, but surely the feeling showed itself on the boy's face as his lips drew back into a sneer, a look of pure malice on his face.

Naruto hated that man. Naruto hated Hidan. Naruto was going to kill him, and nothing would stop him.

He slowly rose from his sitting position before walking towards the feeling of death, knowing exactly where it would lead him.

It felt like hours later when he came upon the massacre, and an anguished whimper left his mouth as he saw the ANBU, his friends, lie in a pool of their own blood.

Two with blood coming from no visible wounds. 'Sheep and Frog.'

One who had been disemboweled. 'Buffalo.'

One who was pierced through his neck by a black spear. 'Sparrow.'

Naruto, inch by inch, walked over to Sparrow, the man who he could undeniabely say he liked the most out of the bunch. He grabbed the spike which killed him, and after a moment of hesistation, he pulled it out, blood dripping from the weapon, hitting Sparrow's armor.

He could feel the spear drain him, and at that moment, hatred flared up inside of him again, and despite his better judgment he flooded the cursed object with both his mana and chakra, silently wishing that the thing would just explode.

He was brought out of his reverie though when he felt the drain just stop, and nary a second later, a pulse went through the clearing, ruffling clothes, grass and branches. Naruto stared down at the spike, shocked, before a twisted grin spread across his whiskered cheeks, the irony not lost on the blonde. As he stopped feeding the object chakra it retracted into a tube, taking a last glance at it before putting it in a secret holder in his sleeve.

Staring at the bodies, he came to a decision. Without a single word, a large amount of earth was ripped up, levitating at least ten feet above ground, creating a fairly large hole. A moment later the bodies of both the ANBU and the family started levitating, slowly descending into the impromptu graveplace. As the last body, Sparrow's, entered the whole, the four masks flew out of it, landing on Naruto's outstretched hand. He respected them, so he would not look at their faces. They deserved their privacy.

Not a moment later, an intense fire started from the hole, incinerating the bodies inside, and Naruto let out another tear at the act, taking in a shuddering breath. After a few minutes he put out the fire before looking inside. Seeing nothing but ashes he bowed, praying for a safe trip to the afterlife.

He quickly turned around, the earth crashing down in the hole, filling it up again. As he began his trek back towards Konoha, the four masks hidden within his seemingly massive pockets, he slowly dragged a finger across the sleeve where his new catalyst rested, the insane man's grinning mug clear in his mind's eye.

He would not let their deaths be in vain.

He would not let that man tarnish their memory.

That man shall die by Naruto's hand, one way or another. That he swore, and neither he nor Kyuubi would break this promise.

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**(1):** Originally, Hidan's scythe was supposed to have several neat tricks hidden in it, but Kishimoto never managed to showcase any of them before Hidan was defeated. In my mind, the cable attached to the scythe is removable, and when it is removed, the butt of the handle can shoot out an enormous amount of black spikes. The scythe has several more tricks that will be revealed later.

Harry Potter Spells

Undetectable Extension Charm: Semi-intermediate spell. This charm has two main effects, the first of which is to expand an object's internal space whilst retaining its external dimensions. The Charm also magically disguises itself so that no one but the caster (and those the caster confides about the Charm in) can realise that this spell has been cast over an object, even if they are experiencing it.

Avada Kedavra: Advanced killing-curse. It has often been discussed what the requirements of being able to cast this particular curse are, yet there seems to be one recurring theme. While one needs to be somewhat adept at casting spells, ones intent to hurt, maim and kill is the main driving force of the fabled killing curse. In short, if a three year old hate you enough, the child might instinctually cast the curse, no matter how unlikely that scenario is. Instant death no matter where one is hit, though one person is said to have survived and said the experience felt like 'an iron-clad fist in the face'.

Bombarda Maxima: Intermediate spell. The most powerful version of the bombarda spell. This spell is most commonly used to destroy houses and structures, clear a large amount of rubble, or battle giants, dragons and trolls due to their large sizes and thick hides. It is also quite effective against large groups of enemies bundled together, for an experienced caster can create an explosion that is able to encompass everything within a fifty feet radius. Unless you're suicidal, do not use this spell in close range unless you have a great amount of control.

Other spells

Post Tenebris Latitantes: Pseudo-original Intermediate darkness-spell. One of several camouflaging spells created, but this one has been rumored to be one of the more effective ones. After the user casts the spell, the shadows of the object you are leaning against will cover you completely, for then to merge back into the aforementioned object, creating an optical illusion which makes you impossible to see from any angles. This does not cover sounds, smells, touch or magical residue from the one hiding though. Note: If the sun is up, or if the moon is paricularely strong, it is recommended for the user to cast the spell while hiding in the shadow-covered side of the wall or object.

Potions, poisons, elixirs and alchemical creations

Polyjuice potion: Semi-advanced potion. A concoction famous for its hard-to-gather materials and morally questionable use. If made correctly, it will look like a sludge-like substance until a person's hair, spit, blood or skin is added, the potion will then change taste, color and mass accordingly to a person's nature. When consumed, the consumer will change shape to look like a perfect replica of the tissue donor. Note: Cross-breed shapeshifting is highly dangerous, and if it does not kill you, it might trap you in a semi-permanent mixture of human and whatever creature you wanted to look like.


	4. Coincidental warning?

**AN: Welcome too another chapter who sadly enough does not have as many words as I would like! DAMN YOU CHAPTER FOR NOT BEING WRITTEN THE WAY I WANTED! I hate you chapter!**

**Gosh, some people really didn't like the last chapter... Oh well, too bad for them. I suck at casual conversations.**

**Interesting fact: Hidan was most likely NOT a part of Akatsuki pre-shippuden, for no person resembling Hidan is shown during their meeting during the last pre-shippuden chapter.**

**LET'S START!**

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Naruto gave a resigned sigh as he looked at the moon from the top of the hotel he had decided to rent a room from. It took him four days to get from Frost Country back to Otafuku Gai, and both he and Kyuubi had been eerily silent the entire trip, which somewhat reflected on their emotional states.

He felt a frown slip upon his features as his mind returned to the pathetic fight he had put up against Hidan, and the strangled scream of despair, probably from Sparrow, which echoed in his mind as he ran. The man who survived it all with a sadistic grin on his face, it was pure luck really that the man didn't sense him. Then again, the man was arrogant. Naruto had a suspicion that the last spike thrown, the one who penetrated countless trees, was a last attempt at killing him.

The mere thought of those cursed weapons made Naruto subconsciously tug at the sleeve where his catalyst was hidden, the spike that killed Sparrow. A mirthless chuckle escaped his lips, something which was quickly followed by a warm feeling which spread around his entire body, Kyuubi attempting to ease the pain Naruto felt as he felt the boy's spiraling thoughts.

'Thanks...'

Naruto let go of another sigh. He had already accepted that there was no possible way for him to help the ANBU, seeing as the Jashinist had somehow learned how to nullify mana. The positive thing was that Naruto knew exactly how to counteract that protection of his. The answer was actually Naruto's new catalyst, a medium that was not only infused with Naruto's own energies, but also Hidan's energies, which counteracted Hidan's initial advantage. Still, he knew that he had no chance against the S-ranked ninja.

Once again he thanked Sparrow for giving him a Bingo Book.

"_You keep this Naruto. Read it, memorize it, and be careful if you ever meet anyone over C-rank. Promise me that you will be careful. After all, I would be heartbroken if my lil' bro just up and died on me you know."_

Former Jounin and Taijutsu specialist from the former Hidden Hot spring village, which meant that his speed probably was a lot higher than what Naruto saw, which only reinforced the notion that Hidan was toying with him, matching Naruto's speed just to agonize him. Naruto had no doubt when it came to how outclassed he was, for even with his fastest and most wide-spread spell, the hundred shadow spears, he would most likely not be able to land a single hit against even a rookie Jounin. Heck, he would probably have trouble against Iruka, but then again, that man was probably one of the strongest Chuunin in the village. He was at least one of the smartest ones, possibly only out-shined by the Nara's, and that was a big maybe.

What got Naruto thinking, was the fact that thinking about his former Academy teacher didn't make his anger flare as it usually did before. After all, the man did hamper his prowess, if unwillingly.

"**He didn't mean it. You did slack off a lot, so he probably saw your questions as you not following class."**

'… I know. I guess we both are to blame really, me for not listening all that much, and he for not explaining things when I actually asked him... I guess we can eat some ramen later, catching up.'

He was snapped out of his musings as he felt a presence at his side.

"Beautiful night, don't you think?"

As the boy glanced towards the voice, he couldn't help but get a bad omen from the man. He was old, probably as old as the Hokage, yet his face was not as wrinkly. His hair was short and spiky, and most of his body was covered in robes, except for his left arm, the other hand hidden inside a sling. He also had bandages around his head, covering one of his eyes, and the uncovered eye was dark-brown, with a stern glint to it.

What gave Naruto flashbacks from his time with the old man though was the X-shaped scar on the man's chin. He had been given many warning about a man, the Hokage's old rival in fact, with a similar scar on his face. Naruto knew exactly who he was looking at, and he was unsure how to feel about the whole affair. At least he could be civil towards the man. For now.

"Yeah, the stars shines so clearly tonight, and the moon seems to just draw one's attention."

As the man sat down, both of them looked at the massive rock in the sky, the man's face softening just a tad bit. He did not smile or smirk, but he didn't look like he was set in stone.

"Yes, I remember seeing the night-sky this vibrant only once before, a night so long ago." For just a moment, Naruto saw the man frown in sadness, but the show of emotions was gone faster than Naruto could blink.

"By the look on your face when you first saw me, I can guess that you know who I am?" The blond didn't look at the man, nor did he give any reaction that he had heard the man at all, he just continued to stare at the moon, weighing his options if he should answer or not.

"... Yes, I have heard about you. The Hokage warned me of you when I was younger actually. According to him, you're a warmonger, wishing to prove Konoha's superiority through warfare. He also told me of your officially disbanded elite ANBU branch, the ROOT division..."

"...I couldn't help but notice that you said 'officially disbanded'. Why?"

"The old man know that it's still operational. He can't deny that they are a great boon to Konoha's forces, but he despises everything about your methods. He said you created mindless drones, tools for you to throw away at a moments notice, puppets that are only loyal to you."

The bandaged man heard the spite in the young man's voice when he said 'tool', and he could somewhat understand why.

"I am afraid Hiruzen is a bit extreme with his accusations. I do not make mindless, emotionless drones as you say, but I rather condition a 'battle-mode', a mental barrier that blocks off everything but rational thinking. Since me and Hiruzen often is at each other throats, they have a habit of donning their emotionless masks around him, but they are ultimately loyal to him. If I give an order for them to kill, and Sarutobi gives them an order to spare, they will follow his command without hesitation, no matter what I say."

"Then why haven't you told him that?" Naruto was genuinely curious and confused, since telling that to the old man would have saved the old warhawk from a lot of migraines.

"I already have, several times in fact, but he does not believe me. I can't really blame him for that, since I have done my fair share of cut-throating during my days. I will do anything to keep Konoha safe. If the day comes when I become a liability against the safety of our home, that is the day I will perish."

Both of them sat in silence, one enjoying the silence, one mulling over the words that was spoken. Naruto knew he shouldn't trust the man, as Hiruzen had often called him a wormtongue, a man that likes to twist his words, articulate them in such a fashion that he sounded like an earnest man. Yet there was something that just told Naruto that the man did not lie.

The blonde found himself frowning though.

"Why are you here? Why did you tell me all this?"

"The answer for that would have me killed. You will no doubt tell Hiruzen about this conversation, and I have told you nothing that the man does not already know. The purpose for our meeting is something I will keep to myself for now." With that, the man stood up before turning around, ready to leave.

"I have one last question though." He uttered as he turned around, staring into the blonde's crystal-blue eyes.

"How far are you willing to go for your revenge?"

The boy blanched. How did the man know about that? It happened four freaking days ago in another country, and he already knows? He hadn't even got back to the village yet dammit!

"To gain power to kill your target, just what will you do? Kill your friends? Abandon the village? Destroy the village? Truly, your bond to Konoha can't be that strong due to the villagers ignorance." It was a statement, not a question, and the man's cold words told him so. The man did not flinch either when the boy pressed a black spike to his throat, a black spike he identified as Hidan's sacrificial weapon.

"What do you take me for? A fucking traitor!?" He snarled, his now red-slitted eyes glaring into the deep-brown one of the old man. "Yes, I fucking hate that piece of garbage that killed my protection. Yes, I would absolutely love to see him dead, but I won't freaking abandon my home for this, nor would I ever hurt anyone I care about! If I wanted to leave, don't you think I wouldn't have tried to already? If my revenge was so important, then why the heck am I on my way back to Konoha!?" As the boy vented, the man had slowly been forced back towards one of the edges of the building, though none of them noticed it, both of them busy with their conversation.

"And what if I gave you the chance to obliterate the man, but at the cost of your alliance to the village?"

"...Then I would not accept it. My friends and my village is far to important for me to give up, even for that man. Heck, my new hobby and my new powers is worth more than him... No, no matter what you would offer, I would not have taken it at the cost of what I deem precious."

The spike snapped back into his sleeve as he turned away from the cripple, heading towards the stairs before descending towards the floor which held his room.

"Uzumaki." The man called, earning a growl from the blonde as he snapped his head towards the one-eyed man.

"What?"

An envelope was thrown at him, which he grabbed before it hit him. He raised an eyebrow at the brown parcelet, the obvious questions unsaid.

"See that as a... gift of sorts, for making me believe your words, at least this time. Some... Interesting events and rumors has been circulating around the continent, probably right up your alley. Do not squander my trust, for those who do happens to... Disappear. That is not a threat, nor is it a promise, it is simply unfortunate circumstances. You understand what I mean, right?"

The boy did not manage to give out an answer before a whirlwind of leaves swirled around the man, only for said man to vanish a moment later, the leaves fluttering around the roof.

"**You know," **Kyuubi said, breaking the tense atmosphere. **"That man sucks at being subtle... Kinda like us."** Naruto let out a chuckle at his brothers words, eyeing the somewhat thick envelope in his hand.

'Yeah, but we got some free stuff out of him... You know what, I think I'll be nice to him back, so I won't mention this to the old man.'

"**You think that's smart?"**

'Nope, not at all.' The blonde admitted, surprising the fox. 'Hopefully though, this will keep him and his ROOT off my back, at least for a little while.'

Kyuubi only let out a silent 'huh' at his brothers words. Naruto though was tired, so he went to his rented room for some shut-eye. Could always read whatever Danzo gave him tomorrow. He just hoped that whatever spirits he sensed would keep quiet that night.

–**The art of magic**–

"What the hell is going on here!?"

Naruto was not happy. Why was he not happy? Well, he had just been woken up from his wonderful sleep, and by the position of the sun, it was barely morning, and Naruto really liked to sleep in occasionally. This was not to be sadly enough, as a lot of screaming outside of his hotel-room window had roused him.

At first, Naruto only gave a grunt of annoyance, turning around in his bed, trying to block out the people. It didn't take long though for him for him to throw off his cover, an annoyed twitch on his face, which was mimicked by Kyuubi since he also loved to sleep. Of course, by the time he had got his clothes on and actually entered the street, most of the people had left the aforementioned dirty road, which made his roared question somewhat redundant.

"Stupid people waking me up from my sleep." He muttered angrily as he stomped down the road, homing into the large spiritual signatures which most likely meant that there was ninjas nearby. He was not disappointed when he turned the corner, as lo and behold, Team 8 stood there, having tied up a pair of men who, by the looks of it, had foamed out of their mouths not long ago.

Great, probably meant he couldn't go back to sleep.

"Hey dead last, what the heck are you doing here?" Konoha's resident dog-boy said, his canine partner barking at Naruto too. Naruto showed his new found self-control when he didn't send a Bombarda at Kiba.

"What I am doing here is none of your business, Dog-breath. Now, can anyone tell me what the heck is up with those two tied-up, shaking idiots?" By the tone of voice, the three genin from the scouting team picked up the small fact that Naruto was not in a happy mood right now.

Damn, he so wished he could go back to sleep. He was dreaming about ramen damn it!

Shino pushed his sunglasses further up his nose, the rising sun reflecting off the pitch-black glass.

"As you just said to Kiba, what we are doing here and what is going on is none of your concern." That didn't stop the Aburame from rising his eyebrows when he saw Naruto crouching down, staring intently at the captives.

'Kyuubi, do you feel that?'

"**Yeah, they have a pretty large spiritual pressure around them. Heh, those guys must suck for not noticing it."**

'Not really, it's just that most ninja's used to feel pure chakra, not the base components that makes chakra.' He was snapped out of his pondering when he heard the stuttering voice of Hinata.

"Umm, what are you doing Naruto?" She muttered, her face a deep red as she glanced at her blond crush. She noticed his dirty attire and somewhat smudgy face, but her shyness held her back from asking about that.

Naruto was silent for a moment before glancing over at the bespectacled individual.

"Shino, you have those bugs, right? Are they picking up something... Strange from those two?" He watched as the Aburame creased his brow for a moment before sending a bug to each of the men. It only took a few seconds before he shook his head in a negative fashion, earning a sigh from the wannabe occult expert.

"Have you guys heard about the person that solves supernatural cases for the Hokage, like the one about the fire-temple in Konoha?" All three gave a nod of recognition. "Remember the name of that person?" Kiba said no while Shino once again creased his brow in thought. Hinata though widened her eyes, realization seeping through her mind.

"His name is Naruto Uzumaki, but that means-" "Jupp, I'm the Hokage's right hand man when it comes to everything supernatural, metaphysical, transcendental and extra-terestrial, and right now, I'm getting some bad vibes from these two."

"Really now, and what do you mean by that?"

All four of them jumped in surprise as a beautiful, black-haired woman with red eyes and a strange attire jumped behind Team 8. Naruto could barely hold in a snort as he watched her dress which looked somewhat like toilet-paper.

"Well, if my suspicions are correct, then these two are either two transformed, weak demons, or two humans that has been possessed by a pair of Poltergeists. Since I don't feel an unnatural amount of physical energy around them which would have signaled demons, then I will hazard a guess and say that they have been possessed." As he said that, the three genins were busy gaping at him in wonder and disbelief. Well, Kiba and Hinata was gaping, it was hard to say that about Shino, though what he could see from the boy's face was somewhat less emotionless than usual, which signaled that he was stunned.

Kurenai though was only blinking in confusion.

"Poltergeists, what's that?"

"The common name is ghost, a name which is shared between different beings, yet a Poltergeist is technically not a ghost per say, but rather a spirit from another realm that has been corrupted by the natural energies that this plane of existence makes. The word Poltergeist comes from a language long since lost to us. They are usually grieving spirits, so they sometimes possesses living creatures to try and vent, something which is usually unsuccessful." He could practically envision the tumbleweed pass by them as now even Shino was visibly staring at him like he was a crazy lunatic with three heads.

"Who are you, and what have you done to Naruto Uzumaki?" Shino said, a cloud of bugs forming above him as Kiba and Hinata entered their fighting stances.

Naruto could swear that he felt one of the veins close to one of his temples pulse in annoyance.

"I find a single bug on me Shino, and I will make sure that the pranks I did against not only your clan, but against all of your clans last year will look like a Christmas gift." Team 8 gulped in fright when a decidedly creepy grin spread across Naruto's face. Oh yeah, this was Naruto, they clearly remembered that grin. It was etched into their memories, and only came out in their darkest nightmares. Oh, the humiliation.

"Forgive me Uzumaki, it's just that..." "It's just that I actually sounded smart for once, and it sounded like I actually knew what I was talking about? Yeah, you guys aren't the first ones to accuse me of being someone else, and you're probably not going to be the last. Let's just say that I finally found a subject that I excel at, despite the fact that it is an almost forgotten art." Oh, how he wished he had a camera, Kiba's face was just too perfect to not take a picture of.

"Don't worry Kiba, despite how smart I sounded before, what I said was basically only the basics. I don't really know much more about Poltergeists than that. Anyway, no matter how great it is to see you guys again, I have a job to do." And with that he turned back to the still slightly twitching men as his hands dug through his seemingly bottomless pockets. "Aha!" He said as he pulled out a somewhat small sack.

He quickly grabbed the two unconcious, possibly possessed men and dragged them to the middle of the road. As he let them go, he separated them before quickly walking around them, surrounding each of them in a circle with the stuff that was in the sack.

"Is that salt?" The sensei asked, peering at the incredibly smooth, white, powdery stuff.

"Jupp. Extremely fine salt crushed into powder, purified of all impurities, which makes this a perfect material to use for exorcism. Salt, even in an impure state, has an unique quality to it that somehow causes extreme pain to poltergeists and others spiritual beings that has possessed someone, though in their natural form it is, for some unclear reason, harmless. I do not know why since there has been almost no research about the properties of salt, so finding out why salt hurts them so much is something I will find out." As he explained that he cut open his palm, an action that earned a startled gasp from Hinata, before letting his blood hit the four cardinal directions, North, South, East and West.

"In case you are wondering, blood has always been a nice medium during exorcism, blood magic and ethically and morally questionable arts. It often empowers the barriers the purifying circles creates. The purifying circles are, obviously, the circles I just made from the salt." He left out that one had to embed the salt with Mana for the barrier to form.

"Wait, hold on!" Kiba said, pointing at the bag before pointing at the still almost-motionless men. "If salt huts them, then why don't you just throw some salt on them instead of doing... Well, whatever you are doing?!" It was a valid question really, especially when Naruto thought about it.

"Well, for one, I really don't want to kill them, since possessed beings have a tendency to die if the possessor forcefully leaves the host body. Two... Well, I just have a bad feeling really, something which has followed me during the last week, and the circle will keep them trapped until I manage to ask them a few question and then I'll safely banish them."

The moment he finished his reasoning some water condenced from nowhere, spraying down the trapped spirit-hosts. They didn't sputter, they didn't curse, but the moment they awoke, the ninja-wire that held them captured snapped, and they instantly tried to move away from the mage. The keyword being tried, for when they touched the edges of the salt-circles, a wall of pure something formed, shocking them, eliciting a gasp of not only pain, but fear too. Somewhat understandable, since the simple, but effective art of trapping a spirit had been lost for at least a millenium.

"H-how is this possible?" Man number one said as man number two rammed into the barrier again, earning the same result as last time.

"That's easy, I'm a mage." Naruto said in a happy voice, snickering at the paling faces of the two possessed men. Somewhat understandable, since there had not been a mage or priest who could not only use a sliver of mana, but also see them in...They did not remember when the last magics practioner with any shred of talent had existed.

"Now," He said, his black spike suddenly snapping out of his sleeve, Team 8 taking a step back in slight fear while their sensei stepped in front of them, just in case. "During the last days, I have felt a constant increasing pressure of different energies, though it has mostly been spiritual and physical energies."

He raised his spike, poking the throat of the left-most man. "What is happening in the ethereal realm? Whatever is going on is unnatural, and I have never heard or read about an occurrence like this in the past."

The two men looked at each other, uncertainity basically shining from their eyes, something which made Naruto frown. Is it possible that these two did not know? If so, that was bad news for him.

"We... We have only heard rumors... You said you're a mage, right? Doesn't that mean you can open one of those dimensional portals?" By the sheepish look and the boys actions of scratching the back of his head, the obvious answer was no. He once again glanced over to his accomplice.

"You're basically an acolyte, eh? Heh, the energy of a master wizard, pretty good control to I might add if I sense everything correctly, yet what you know is bare-bones... Am I right?" The right one said, earning a look from the left one.

"Acolyte or not brother, he obviously knows enough to trap and neutralize beings like us, so bare-bones or not, we are at his mercy right now." He only got a sigh from his brother.

"You are correct brother. We should have learned after last time to not enter the human world unprepared."

"As wonderful as this is, you still haven't answered my question." Everytime the two 'brothers' looked at each other, Naruto felt that he was part of some inside joke. Problem was, he didn't know the punchline.

"Say," The left one said, his eyes starting to glow slightly blue. "When did you start your training? Five days ago?" It was not unheard of that an absolute beginner would have a mana-potential higher than some master wizards after all.

"Why does that matter?"

"Five days ago, a surge of spiritual and natural energies was felt over all the realms. It is wrong to believe that you are the cause?" The other one said, his eyes glowing an eerie red.

"What if I am?"

Once again, the brothers looked at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation.

"I guess it would be prudent to tell him, or what do you say brother?"

"Yes, I believe you are correct brother."

"A war is coming." They both said in unison, their identical voices sending a small shiver of... Something down the young teens spines.

"A Demonlord from the west will rise again, a demon who fell by the hands of man under a great city, only to later corrupt said man-"

"-A demon, who was said to always wander to the east, being followed by a untrustworthy servant-"

"-Through grassy plains and monasteries, enslaving the women, his love keeping them in line-"

"-Through empty deserts and ancient graves, 'freeing' his brother after eternal torment from a mad priest-"

"-Through poison-filled swamps and ancestral temples, corrupting the cultists, entering hell through a portal of bones-"

"-Only to be banished when his soul was shattered, its remains spread around the realms."

"His name has been lost in the torrent of time, though there are probably some beings out there who remember his name."

"His title though is another matter, as his title still brings just a trace of trepidation, even amongst the young ones who should have no recollection about the events before the second cataclysm."

Here they stopped their rambling, at least that is what is sounded like for everyone but Naruto. To him, this sounded more like half prophecy, half history repeating itself.

"The Lord of Terror will rise again. The Abominable know this, the Empyrean know this, and the human world will once again be the battleground, as it has always been." As the last syllable left their mouths, a circle with strange symbold appeared around them, glowing an alluring yellow.

"The brothers of fire and wind have uphold their side of the contract, we have delivered your only warning, we will now take our leave. We must say, you have been a commendable audience." And with that, a fire surrounded them only to dissipate a moment later, leaving the barrier circles empty.

"What... What the fuck were they talking about?" Kiba almost shouted, startling Naruto as he had totally forgotten that they were there.

"I... I'm not sure." It was a half-truth really, since he understood what the... Demons? Was implying, and the title Lord of Terror did have a familiar tone to it, yet he could not dredge up the memory.

'I have to check out what Danzo gave me the moment I return to Konoha. This prophetic tale of theirs and the 'interesting events and rumors' is most likely not a coincidence, it's simply to close to each other. If that's the case, then maybe a part of the Demonlord's soul is here in the elemental countries.'

"Excuse me." He turned towards the Jounin, gaining her attention. "Can I ask you to escort me back to Konoha? Lord Hokage must learn about what happened here today, because I have a feeling that in not long, hell will quite literally break loose."

The woman seemed to think about it while Kiba looked at him like he still was an idiot, Hinata was blushing about the thought of being near Naruto for so long, and Shino was being Shino.

"It depends really, can you keep up?" Oh, how naïve of a question.

"Unless those three can travel as fast as a Jounin, I should keep up nicely." He was actually somewhat surprised that the woman did not know this. Heck, he was surprised that the ANBU didn't know that, since he was known as the prankster from hell after all, rumored to have outrun the entire village's chuunin corps.

'Oh well, ignorance is bliss, I guess.'


End file.
